Senate in flux as Lacson quits blue ribbon post

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson on Sunday said he is stepping down as chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee after some of his colleagues expressed disappointment over the course of the panel’s inquiry into anomalous flood control projects.

His resignation followed widespread speculation of another Senate shake-up only less than a month after Sen. Francis Escudero was replaced by Senate President Vicente Sotto III.

Lacson also on Sunday denied there was another looming change in the Senate leadership. But he noted the sentiments expressed by some of his colleagues as the main reason for his resignation, naming in particular Senators JV Ejercito and Sherwin Gatchalian.

Ejercito earlier remarked that he, along with four other senators, planned to leave the majority bloc after several former and incumbent senators were tagged as being involved in anomalous flood control projects being investigated by the blue ribbon committee.

“To be honest, I seriously thought about leaving the majority. Because if this is the direction we’re headed, it’s like we’re burning down our own house. We’re neglecting our colleagues, and we’re forgetting who the real culprits are,” he said.

But he quickly clarified that he would not join the minority.

“I didn’t say I am moving to the minority. More of being independent, along with some senators,” Ejercito said.

Sen. Imee Marcos also said she left the group chat of the 20th Congress senators after Lacson took a swipe at her.

Lacson had called on Marcos to attend hearings on the flood control controversy after she said there was confusion if the blue ribbon committee’s probe would continue.

“Due to the comments I’ve been hearing from my colleagues, one of the options I’m considering is to move on or submit my resignation as chairperson and let them find someone else who can lead the blue ribbon committee,” he said.

“Rightly or wrongly, when quite a number of them have expressed disappointment over how I’m handling the flood control project anomalies, I thought it’s time for me to step aside in favor of another member who they think can handle the committee better,” he added.

‘Pleasure of our peers’

Lacson emphasized that all chairpersons of the committees in the Senate and House of Representatives “serve at the pleasure of our peers” since they were elected particularly by the members of the majority bloc.

“I’m not serving as chair of the blue ribbon committee at the pleasure of the President of the Philippines, at the pleasure of netizens, at the pleasure of bashers, not even at the pleasure of the public. I serve at the pleasure of my peers,” Lacson noted.

He said he is preparing his resignation letter to Senate President Sotto and may formally manifest it in the plenary.

But Lacson also emphasized that his stepping down will not stop his continuing fight against corruption.

“No amount of criticisms from misinformed netizens and partisan sectors can distract or pressure me from doing my job right, but when my own peers start expressing their group or individual sentiments, maybe it is best to vacate.” “Nevertheless, I will continue to fight a corrupt and rotten system in the misuse and abuse of public funds as I have consistently done in the course of my long years in public service,” he said.

Lacson initially announced in an interview on radio dzBB on Sunday morning that he was considering stepping down from his panel post, but released a statement in the afternoon that he was already pushing through with his plan.

“If my colleagues are no longer trusting me enough, especially if the majority of them are not happy anymore with my handling of the blue ribbon committee, maybe it’s time for me to consider stepping down as an option,” Lacson said.

‘Hearings handled well’

Regarding another change in the Senate leadership already widely speculated on Sunday, Lacson told the Inquirer: “Not true. It’s the same old rehashed psywar tactic all over again intended to confuse and sow intrigue among members of the majority.”

There had been speculations particularly on social media that senators are eyeing to switch sides and support Senate Minority Leader Alan Cayetano to become the next Senate President.

Lacson said it also had nothing to do with his decision to resign as chair of the blue ribbon committee.

“All I can say is—I can handle all the pressure. It’s the frustration that’s hard to bear,” he said.

“Rest assured that there’s no wavering in my advocacy against the corrupt and rotten system, particularly the misuse and abuse of public funds,” he said.

Lacson said he continues to support the leadership of Sotto.

“But if you will ask me, I’ve already experienced his being a Senate President for the longest time, in the past Congress. His system of management is good; he has good leadership. He always goes for consensus, he doesn’t dictate and he doesn’t decide alone. So if you ask me, I’ll continue to support him,” he said.

But if his colleagues in the Senate think otherwise, and believe that Sotto lacks leadership skills, then they can push for another Senate leadership change.

“That’s how it goes in the Senate, whoever has the majority, whoever has at least 13… whoever is sitting can be replaced by whoever has at least 13 (votes),” Lacson added.

On Saturday, Senator Gatchalian also said he believes Sotto’s leadership is “very stable.”

Lacson also scored the fake news and false narratives that some sectors insisted on circulating—that he is targeting some fellow senators while allegedly protecting members of the House of Representatives perceived to be the “masterminds” of the flood control mess, including former Speaker Martin Romualdez and ex-Rep. Elizaldy Co.

“If you ask me, I would say I handled the hearings well. But there are those trying to disrupt the hearings. In one instance, the hearing had barely started when someone tried to make a distraction. That is why there is a perception that the hearings were not handled well,” he said.

“If majority of my peers do not trust me, I am not so numb, I’m not that insensitive not to feel that. They’ve already expressed their sentiments… if that is how my colleagues think, who am I to insist to stay as chair? If in their opinion someone else can handle it, I’ll leave it to them,” he added.

‘Colleagues’ sentiments’

Lacson disclosed at a caucus on Monday last week that some of his peers also expressed concerns that his remarks about budget insertions could affect the whole institution.

Lacson earlier said that almost all senators of the 19th Congress inserted at least P100 billion worth of items in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), mostly in favor of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), for infrastructure projects, including flood control. He cited documents he had gathered showing these were individual insertions, although they were eventually held “for later release.”

He also said that members of the House of Representatives likewise made their own amendments or insertions in the 2025 national budget, with the total exceeding by “much, much more” those made by the Senate.

Citing information he accessed, Lacson said the list of the House members who made insertions in the DPWH’s favor in last year’s GAA was several pages long, with the names in alphabetical order. “It was like a roll call,” he said.

When asked if the amount was larger than the insertions made by senators, Lacson replied: “Much, much more.”

He explained that the DPWH received such massive insertions because many lawmakers were likely in collusion with the department’s corrupt officials to get their share of huge kickbacks from projects—even if it meant giving the DPWH a bigger budget than the education sector, which was in violation of the 1987 Constitution.

No offense meant

“I can actually feel and understand completely the sentiments expressed by my colleagues, at least the members of the majority bloc during our majority caucus, so I explained to them that the mention of ‘almost all senators’ was not intended to put them or the whole Senate on the spot, nor did I have the intention of calling them out particularly,” he said in a previous interview.

“The overarching reason for my disclosure or revelation was to point out that we must accept the fact that we are all in crisis owing to the recent anomalies involving the substandard and even ghost flood control projects unearthed in the course of the blue ribbon committee hearings and other similar investigations,” the senator added.

Lacson reiterated in the radio interview that he was able to explain to his colleagues that it was not his intention to target them.

“I did not intend to offend them or to bring them down. I just want us all to wake up to the reality that people are mad and we should refrain from making humongous budget insertions,” he said.

He explained that insertions are not illegal or improper.

“Insertions are amendments. There is nothing wrong with it. The only time it becomes illegal is when you make an amendment for infrastructure projects, whether flood control related or not, then you meddle in its implementation and you collect a commission, that’s illegal,” Lacson said.

Transparency in hearings

Also on Sunday, Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon said Lacson’s departure from the blue ribbon panel “should now compel the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to conduct a broad, unrelenting and open sweep of all individuals named in both Senate and House hearings, to determine with precision their respective liabilities, and to recommend the filing of appropriate charges.”

Ridon said Lacson’s leadership of the committee “yielded the most consequential testimonies and [pieces of] evidence” compared to all the subsequent hearings on the alleged flood control anomalies, particularly from the affidavits of former DPWH officials.

“Senator Lacson’s blue ribbon committee hearings exposed not only members of Congress as principal participants in the capture of the national budget at every stage of the budget process but also the involvement of executive officials, particularly in the capture of unprogrammed appropriations, which fall solely within the authority of the executive branch,” Ridon said.

He also urged the ICI to open its proceedings to the public and establish rules on when proceedings may be held in executive session. —WITH A REPORT FROM KEITH CLORES